


Back to the Beginning

by cosmic_llin



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Movies)
Genre: Getting Back Together, Multi, Threesome - F/F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 10:54:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about things, since that day,’ says Beverly eventually.She doesn’t need to specify which day she means. That day is burned into all of their memories, almost too bright to look at.Deanna, Beverly and Will, between Enterprises.





	Back to the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pixie (magnetgirl)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetgirl/gifts).



> This is set in the time between _Star Trek: Generations_ and _Star Trek: First Contact_ , and assumes that Beverly, Deanna and Will had a brief romantic/sexual relationship following the events of _The Host_.

Some of the crew have taken assignments elsewhere - temporary or permanent. Some are taking long-awaited leave, or sabbaticals to pursue other interests. Many are hoping to be assigned to the Enterprise E once it’s completed, but plenty more have decided to move on, take this as a sign to try something new.

Deanna never even considered it. The Enterprise is her home, and its crew are her family. Perhaps she’s grown too comfortable there, but whoever said there was anything wrong with being comfortable? She’s never really felt perfectly at home anywhere before.

Perhaps the new one won’t feel the same, but she’s willing to gamble that it will. At the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, where she’s taken a temporary counselling assignment, she can walk past the hangar where they’re building her each day, keep an eye on her.

Will’s there too, overseeing the construction on Captain Picard’s behalf - not a privilege they’d extend to just any crew, but nobody’s going to be the one to tell Captain Picard - or his proxy - that he can’t have his ship just the way he likes it. The design is different, of course, but Will knows exactly how the captain wants things.

Beverly’s working at Starfleet Medical on Earth, but she’s taken quarters on Utopia Planitia and commutes in on the regular public shuttle. There are plenty of nicer and more interesting places to stay on Earth, but Deanna understands why she wants to be here. They meet up as often as their schedules allow and chat about normal things as though their lives haven’t been left hanging in mid-air.

One day, as they sit in one of the replimats and watch the work bees fly past outside, Deanna senses that Beverly is struggling with something. She lets the conversation lapse into silence, sipping her tea.

‘I’ve been thinking a lot about things, since that day,’ says Beverly eventually.

She doesn’t need to specify which day she means. That day is burned into all of their memories, almost too bright to look at.

‘Yes?’ Deanna says.

Beverly twists her hands together, looks down at the table. ‘It… while the ship was crashing, I had my arm around Alyssa, and all I could think was that I was so glad to be near her, that neither of us was alone. And then we didn’t die, and we all started to pick our way out of the wreckage, and… I remember the moment I saw you, how I was so happy to see you alive that I almost couldn’t breathe, do you remember?’

Deanna does remember. She’d sensed Beverly already, had her own private moment of profound relief, so that when they saw each other she wasn’t too overwhelmed to catch the edge of Beverly’s fierce joy.

‘Of course,’ she says.

‘Well,’ continues Beverly, picking at her sleeve, ‘since that day, I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters to me… or, I guess, _who_ matters to me.’

Deanna waits.

‘I know that it didn’t work out last time,’ Beverly continues, ‘between you and me and Will. And I know that was my fault.’

‘Beverly…’

‘I know, I know you’re going to say that it wasn’t anybody’s fault, but if it was anyone’s, it was mine. And… maybe soon it will be my fault again, because I don’t really know what I want and I’m not sure what I’m feeling, maybe I’m just scared of my own mortality, but all I know is, since the crash I’ve had this feeling that I need to grab hold of the things that are important to me, and… that’s you. And Will. And Jean-Luc, if he ever comes back.’

‘He’ll come back,’ says Deanna. ‘Beverly… what do you want to do about it?’

Beverly shrugs helplessly. ‘I don’t know?’

* * *

Deanna still cherishes the memory of those six months of the three of them. It was hard at first, dealing with the complicated threads of it, the different ways they were all hurting and afraid of each other after Odan left, but for a while it was so, so good. She wasn’t sad any more that Beverly had pulled back - it had been the right thing to do at the time, and their friendships came out of it stronger than ever - but for a long while afterward she missed the way they’d felt together.

She suggests that the three of them go on a date. It’s not necessarily the approach she’d take with anyone else, but she thinks Beverly will be calmed by the normality of it. They can all just spend some time together and relax a little and maybe things will sort themselves out.

* * *

She and Will pick up Beverly from her quarters together. They’re assigned separate rooms but in practice they sleep at her place most nights. It’s lonely on this big, cold station, and although they do sometimes have sex when he stays over, it started - and mostly still is - because they both wanted the company, the comfort of the familiar. Tonight they got ready together, falling easily into the rhythm of it, both of them thinking about how once, Beverly was part of that rhythm.

‘Don’t you both look wonderful?’ Beverly says, a little too brightly, as she opens the door.

She greets each of them with a kiss on the cheek - nothing out of the ordinary for them, but this time it’s charged with potential. Deanna can sense Beverly’s churning feelings without having to try, she could barely keep them at bay if she wanted to. Will’s are a little more focused, but still heightened, anxious. She loops her arm around Beverly’s so that the three of them are in a chain together, and chatters about her day until the tension begins to dissipate.

They have dinner at one of the nicer restaurants, serving Ktarian-Andorian fusion cuisine. Talk turns to the Enterprise, like it always seems to now. (Deanna’s trying to make herself think of the Enterprise D as the “old Enterprise” instead of the “real Enterprise”.) It’s bittersweet, but it’s natural that they should talk about the things they’ve lost, the friends who’ve gone away.

When she senses that reminiscence is almost tipping into melancholy, Deanna steers the conversation back to what this is really about - the shape of their relationships with each other.

‘It’s not an all-or-nothing question,’ she says. ‘If we try for a while and decide we want to go back to how things are now, we haven’t lost anything. If we decide now isn’t the right time, and then change our minds about _that_ later, we still haven’t lost anything. The only thing we have to figure out is what we each want.’

It’s not quite as simple as that, she knows. And they know that she knows. But it’s a good first step.

‘What I want,’ she says, to get the ball rolling, ‘is for all of us to stay as close as we have been these past few years, in whatever form that takes.’

‘What I want,’ says Will, catching on, ‘is the same thing, but… I also want to be able to wake up with both of you in the morning. I miss that.’

‘What I want…’ says Beverly.

She stops, but Deanna catches the essence of what she can’t make herself say. If this was therapy, maybe she’d stay silent, make Beverly get there by herself, but this is her friend.

‘Beverly,’ she says, ‘do you want to come to bed with us tonight?’

‘God, yes,’ Beverly breathes. ‘I’m sorry… It’s not only about that. But I feel… I need…’

‘It’s all right,’ says Will, and he reaches out and holds Beverly’s hand over the table. She looks down, smiles almost shyly.

They take their time finishing their drinks, and walk slowly back to Deanna’s quarters, hand in hand in hand. Deanna can sense Beverly’s nervous tension like a low buzzing in the air.

_Go slow_ , she warns Will, and he nods.

She puts some music on, and the three of them sit on the sofa talking for a while. Deanna is a diplomat by nature but she’s never known anybody as good at putting others at ease as Will Riker. Even through his own nerves about this situation, he’s drawing Beverly out, helping her to relax and laugh. She remembers it was one of the things that first drew her to him on Betazed, his ability to lighten the mood, make people feel listened to.

Beverly’s tension has a different flavour now, less scared, more wanting. As they talk, Deanna slides an arm around her waist, and Beverly leans against her. Deanna traces patterns on Beverly’s hip bone with the tip of her finger, and when Will finishes the joke he’s telling, Beverly’s laughter shakes her whole body and vibrates against Deanna’s. The three of them slide off the sofa, giggling helplessly - even Will, who manages not to laugh at his own jokes in public but has long since given it up when it’s just the three of them.

Somehow when they recover themselves Beverly is leaning against Will, who has his back against the sofa. He arranges himself and pulls her closer so that she’s sitting between his legs, and she sighs and relaxes into it, her head against his shoulder. He wraps arms around her to keep her in place, and Deanna senses a flicker of deep satisfaction from her.

She shuffles forward on her knees, takes Beverly’s hands, and leans in. She starts with light kisses on Beverly’s collarbone and neck, but it’s Beverly herself who tilts Deanna’s face upward so that their mouths meet, kisses her as urgently as if kisses were oxygen.

Deanna senses Will’s growing arousal as he watches the two of them, and then she senses Beverly’s sudden awareness of the physicality of Will’s arousal, and she spends a moment savouring the delicious domino effect that is sex with three participants when you’re empathic. But there’s time to attend to Will’s needs later. Right now Beverly needs to be held and caressed and adored.

Deanna and Will’s synchronicity in the bedroom doesn’t only apply to situations where it’s just the two of them. The combination of empathic connection, long practice and treating sex like the art form that it is means that they are also exquisitely talented at bringing pleasure to others. As they work together to free Beverly from her dress and explore every inch of her with gentle hands and soft mouths, Deanna feels a rush of love for Will and the way that he can anticipate and echo her.

This is what Beverly wanted and what she finds so hard to ask for - not their love, she knows she has that, but their undivided attention, the way they take care of her, the way they hold her.

Being the only one undressed makes Beverly feel shy, so Deanna sheds her own clothing and tugs Beverly through onto the bed while Will discards his, and for a while they lie with her between them, warm skin on the silk of Deanna’s sheets, coaxing soft sounds of enjoyment from her.

When Beverly’s ready, Will holds her tight so that she feels safe, and Deanna moves down the bed and parts Beverly’s thighs and puts fingers and tongue to work, slow and steady until she asks breathlessly for more, harder, please, and Deanna gives her everything she wants the moment she wants it, holds nothing back, feels the gratitude tangled in the need as Beverly’s hips buck against her.

When Beverly comes Deanna feels it like a tight knot suddenly slipping free, letting go everything that it held in place. Beverly’s hoarse cries ring in her ears like music. Deanna gives her a few moments to recover and then brings her quickly back to orgasm, and once Beverly stills again, her hand still tangled in Deanna’s hair, she knows that’s enough for now, that Beverly needs time to float gently back to herself.

Deanna kisses her way back up Beverly’s body until they’re face to face. Beverly’s smiling with her eyes closed. Deanna grins at Will over Beverly’s shoulder. They’ll take their turn soon - sometimes Beverly just likes to watch, and Deanna senses tonight will be one of those times - but for now they just enjoy being the three of them.

* * *

Deanna wakes early the next morning. Beverly’s arm is draped across her, and Will’s arm is curled around Beverly. It’s easy enough to slide out without disturbing them. She watches them fondly for a minute and then starts her morning, enjoying the quiet and the absence of urgency.

They’ll probably still need to have long discussions about what happens next, but she thinks last night was a good start. Sometimes Beverly needs to be reminded that some things are simple.

Deanna showers and dresses and the other two are still sleeping peacefully, so she heads out for a walk. Her feet carry her to the wide-windowed corridor overlooking the Enterprise’s hangar. It’s starting to look like a real ship now. Most of the major construction is done, and the internals are coming along steadily. The pieces are beginning to be a whole.

Right now it’s still early enough that there’s nobody there. The Enterprise could be sleeping. Deanna leans on the railing and just looks, until the morning shift arrives, and then she heads back to her quarters to start breakfast.


End file.
